JP3082235B2 - Character outline data converter - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conversion device for converting outline data of a character into dot data, and in particular, changes the outline data according to a change in the line width of a character configuration area. Regarding what you did.

[Conventional technology]

Recently, in order to print characters and symbols on printing paper or to display them on a display, outline data obtained by digitizing the outline of each of a plurality of characters such as characters and symbols is stored in a non-volatile memory such as an outline font memory. The contour data is subjected to conversion processing such as scaling processing for enlarging / reducing the contour data to a designated character size, and the converted contour data is converted into dot data to be stored in a laser printer or display device. Output to such an output device.

By the way, in Japanese and European languages, a plurality of characters such as characters and symbols are generally managed in a typeface corresponding to the type of the shape and the line width (thickness) of the character configuration area surrounded by the outline. The outline font memory has a light system with a thin line width or a bold system with a large line width, and a line width with an intermediate width between light and bold so that characters can be printed and displayed in a desired typeface. For a plurality of fonts including Mincho and Gothic fonts including a font such as a semi-bold font, a large number of contour data of characters classified for each font is stored. However, storing outline data of a plurality of characters in the outline font memory for each typeface requires a large-capacity outline font memory. For example, for a light typeface character whose width is the basic thickness, only the outline data is stored in the outline font memory, and the basic outline data is changed so that the line width of the constituent lines becomes the specified thickness. Later, the data is converted into dot data.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

As described above, the outline font memory stores the basic outline data of the character of the light type font whose line width is the basic thickness, and changes the line width of the constituent lines to the specified thickness, and then converts the line data into the dot data. When converting and printing,
For example, when the line width of the constituent line of the kanji “Kusa” shown in FIG. 6 according to the embodiment is specified to be thick (for example, about 1.6 times), the kanji “Kusa” becomes a closed-loop contour as shown in FIG. RA
Closed loop contour RB in the character composition area surrounded by
Part of the intruding part, the intruding part is converted into dot data of data "0" and becomes a white part that is not printed, and the printing quality is reduced. Also, the bold kanji "grass" shown in FIG. When printing with "white characters", there is a problem that all the outlines are printed and the printing quality is degraded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a character outline data conversion device capable of generating a bold character or an outline character while maintaining print quality.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The character contour line data conversion device according to the present invention comprises:
As shown in the functional block diagram of FIG.
The outline data of one or more closed-loop outlines is completely or substantially within the character configuration area surrounded by the outline, assuming that the outline is superimposed on a pixel screen having pixels of a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns. In a character contour line data conversion device provided with data conversion means for converting into a set of dot data corresponding to included pixels, an external device is used to change a line width of a character configuration region of a character to a line width designated from outside. By processing the contour data received from the user according to a predetermined rule, at least one of the opposing contour segments of the contours defining the character configuration area is moved with respect to the other, and the closed-loop contour is defined again. Receiving the changed contour data from the contour data changing means; , For the contour line including the moved contour line segment and the contour line intersecting with it, one or more closed loop contour lines that do not intersect by removing the contour line segment that has entered the character configuration area of the other party And closed-loop synthesizing means for supplying the contour data of the character consisting of one or more closed-loop contours obtained as a result to the data conversion means while leaving the non-intersecting contours as they are. is there.

[Action]

In the character contour line data conversion device according to the present invention, the contour line data changing means includes a contour when the closed loop contour of the character is superimposed on a pixel screen having pixels of a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns. In order to change the line width of the enclosed character composition region to the line width designated from the outside, the contour data received from the outside is processed according to a predetermined rule, so that the opposing contour lines defining the character composition region are processed. At least one of the contour segments is moved relative to the other and again a closed loop contour. On the other hand, the closed-loop synthesizing means receives the modified contour data from the contour data changing means, and, through the contour data, the contour including the moved contour segment and the contour intersecting with the moved contour segment. One or more closed-loop contours that do not intersect by removing the contour segments that have entered the character composition area and leave the non-intersecting contours as they are, and the resulting one or more closed-loop contours The data converting means supplies the contour data of the character composed of the character contour to the data converting means, and converts the contour data into a set of dot data corresponding to the pixels completely or substantially included in the character configuration area. I do.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the character contour data conversion device of the present invention, the contour data changing means and the closed loop synthesizing means are provided, and the contour data is processed according to a predetermined rule, thereby changing the line width of the character constituent area. Contour data of a closed loop contour is created, and for a contour including a contour segment moved at the time of changing the line width and a contour intersecting with the contour segment, a contour segment that has entered the character configuration area of the other party is extracted. Removed into one or more non-intersecting closed-loop contours, and the resulting 1
Since data is converted into dot data by data conversion means based on the contour data of a character composed of one or a plurality of closed loop contours, a character surrounded by one closed loop contour even when the bold character has a thick line width The data is converted into a set of dot data corresponding to all of the constituent areas, and a beautiful character that does not include a white portion that is not printed can be generated. In addition, since closed-loop contours do not intersect, it is possible to create contour data that can generate beautiful white characters based on the contour of a bold character.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a data conversion device that converts character outline data into dot data in order to generate a character image such as a character or a symbol in a laser printer.

Among the control devices of the laser printer, the control system of the data conversion device relating to the data conversion for converting the contour data to the dot data is configured as shown in FIG. 2, and the data conversion control device 14 is basically CPU 16 and ROM (program memory) 18 and ROM (outline font memory) 2 connected to CPU 16 via bus 28 such as a data bus
0, a RAM (text memory) 22, a RAM (working memory) 24, and a RAM (dot data memory) 26. Further, the input device 10 and the printing device 12 are connected to the bus 28, and the input device 10 is provided with a character code and character size data supplied from the outside and a line width of a character configuration outline surrounded by the outline of the character. The printer 12 prints the bitmap data input from the dot data memory 26 by a laser printing method, such as inputting various data necessary for data processing such as bold command data indicating the degree of thickening. Things.

The program memory 18 stores a control program for data conversion control and various control programs described later. The data conversion control program includes a subroutine for reading contour data relating to the input character code from the outline font memory 20, a scaling process control subroutine for enlarging / reducing (scaling) contour data, A short vector processing subroutine for expanding data into short vectors, a Bezier curve function subroutine for generating a Bezier curve function, and a conversion processing subroutine for converting contour data subjected to short vector processing into dot data are stored.

The outline font memory 20 stores, for each of a large number of characters, outline data of one or more closed-loop outlines defining the outline of the character in association with the code number of the character. Note that the memory 20 stores outline data of a light type font whose line width is small for each character. However, the closed-loop contour includes one in which one or more closed-loop contours exist inside the contour. The text memory 22 stores text data (code strings) supplied from the input device 10. The working memory 24 stores various calculation results processed by the CPU 16.
The dot data memory 26 stores the converted dot data.

Next, a data conversion control routine performed by the data conversion control device 14 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. In the figure, reference symbol Si (i = 10, 11,
12 ...) are each step.

This control is started each time the code data of the character stored in the text memory 22 is read, and the outline data of the character corresponding to the code data is read from the outline font memory 20 based on the code data (S10). If the text memory 22 stores bold command data for changing to bold characters (S11: Yes), bolding process control (see FIG. 4) is executed. (S12). At the time of inputting the bold command data, line width data indicating the line width is stored in a predetermined memory area of the text memory 22.

When this control is started, based on the data of each closed-loop contour of the contour data, of the contours defining the character configuration area, both opposing contour segments defining the thickness of the line width. Is determined for each closed loop contour (S20), and is moved in a predetermined direction based on the line width data stored in the text memory 22 so that each determined contour line segment has the specified line width. (S21), and by obtaining data of each contour line segment after the movement,
The outline data of the bolded character is obtained (S22), and the process returns. For example, when the code stored in the text memory 22 is the Chinese character "Kusa", the outline data of the Chinese character "Kusa" is read as shown in FIG. This contour data is represented by coordinate data “a1, a2, a3, a4.
9, a20 '', a closed-loop contour RB composed of coordinate data `` b1, b2, b3, b4 ... b15, b16 '', and coordinate data `` c1, c2, c3, c4 "And a coordinate data" d1, d2, d3, d4 "
And two closed loop contours defining the line width based on these coordinate data are formed by the closed loop contours RD and RB, respectively. Determined for RC and RD. That is, for the closed-loop contour line RA, the contour line segments (a2-a3), (a3-a4), (a5-a6), (a6-a7)
.. (a19-a20), (a20-a1), closed loop contour RB
For the contour segments (b1-b2), (b2-b3),
(B3-b4), (b4-b5) ... (b15-b16), (a16
−b1), for the closed loop contour RC, the contour segments (c1−c2), (c2−c3), (c3−c4), (c4−c1),
For the closed loop contour RD, the contour segment (d1−
d2), (d2-d3), (d3-d4), and (d4-d1) are determined respectively, and each of these outline segments is moved in a predetermined direction based on the line width data, and is shown in FIG. The outline data of the bolded Chinese character "Kusa" is obtained.

Next, based on the bolded contour data,
With respect to the two closed-loop contours, intersection data between these closed-loop contours is obtained by arithmetic processing (S1).
3). That is, for example, in the case of the bolded Chinese character "Kusa" shown in FIG. 7, when obtaining intersection data for the closed-loop contours RA and RB, the contour segment (a1−
For a2), the presence or absence of an intersection with each contour line segment (b1-b2), (b2-b3),... (b16-b1) of each closed-loop contour line RB is calculated. For each of the line segments (a2-a3), (a3-a4)... (A20-a1), the presence or absence of an intersection of each closed-loop contour RB with each contour segment is calculated. In addition, the closed loop contour RB
, And RC, and the intersection is similarly calculated for the closed-loop contour lines RC and RD. When the intersection is obtained, the coordinate data p1, p2, p3, and p4 of the intersection are stored in the working memory 24, while the outline segments (a3-a4) and (a5-a6) including the intersections p1 to p4 are stored. ), (A7-a
8), (a9-a10), (b16-b1) are (a3-p1), (p1-a
4), (a5-p2), (p2-a6), (a7-p3), (p3-a
8), (a9-p4), (p4-a10), (b16-p4), (p4-p
3) divided into one or more contour segments including intersections, such as (p3-p2), (p2-p1), (p1-b1),
An intersection flag is additionally stored in the contour segment including the intersection.

Next, an intersection flag stored in the data of the contour line segment of each closed-loop contour is searched, and when this intersection flag is detected (S14: Yes), the two contours that intersect at the intersection are converted into one. Processing control for synthesizing with a closed loop contour (see FIG. 5) is executed (S15). When this control is started, the outline segments mutually protruding into the character configuration area surrounded by each closed-loop outline are removed (S30), and two closed-loop outlines are converted into one based on the intersection data. Combined into a closed loop contour (S3
1), new contour data is created based on the synthesized closed loop contour (S32), and the process returns. For example, in the case of the kanji "Kusa" shown in FIG. 7, the contour segment (p1-a4) that enters the constituent region of the closed-loop contour RB from among the plurality of contours of the closed-loop contour RA described above. ), (A4-a5), (a5-p2), (p3-a
8), (a8-a9) and (a9-p4) are removed,
Out of the plurality of contour segments of the closed loop contour RB, the contour segments (p4-p3) and (p2-p1) protruding into the constituent region of the closed loop contour RA are removed, and each closed loop contour is obtained. The lines RA, RB, RC, and RD are respectively changed as shown in FIG. Further, the two closed-loop contour lines RA and RB are coordinate data a1, a2, a3, p1, b1,
b2... b16, p4, a10, a11... a19, a20, and a1 are combined into one closed-loop contour RAB. The other closed-loop contour lines RC and RD are not changed, but at this time, a new closed-loop contour line RE including coordinate data a6, p2, p3, and a7 is created. As a result, new contour data after the bolding processing of the kanji “Kusa” is created by the closed-loop contours RAB, RC, RD, and RE.

Next, enlargement / reduction processing (scaling processing) is performed on the contour data so as to have the set character size (S1).
6) The curve data is developed into a plurality of short vectors (S17), and the contour data subjected to the short vector processing is converted into dot data and stored in the dot memory 26 (S18), and the process returns to the main routine.

This dot data conversion process is performed using the pixel screen 30 as shown in FIG. The pixel screen 30 is provided at equal intervals of a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns extending in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction, respectively, and includes a plurality of pixel section lines l1 for defining a pixel which is a minimum printing unit when printing with a laser. And is a theoretical one for converting the outline data to dot data. Assuming that the outline data of the character is superimposed on the pixel screen 30, bit data corresponding to a pixel completely or substantially included in the character configuration area is set to data "1". The size of this pixel is determined by the resolution of the printer, and is usually 1/300 inch.

Accordingly, there is no portion where any of the closed loop contours RAB, RC, RD, and RE constituting the bolded kanji “grass” intersect each other, so that each closed loop contour RAB, RC, R
D will be converted to dot data corresponding to the whole of the character configuration area enclosed by D and RE, and the bolded kanji "Kusa" is a beautiful kanji that does not include white parts that are not printed in any part Printed. In addition, when the bolded kanji “grass” is printed in “white”, it can be printed as a beautiful white character based on the outline.

In the data conversion control, when the line width is increased, one of the opposing contour line segments defining the line width may be moved with respect to the other. In this case, the calculation processing for finding the intersection only for the moved outline segment is executed, and the calculation processing can be shortened.

Of course, the present invention can be applied to various output devices such as a printer, a facsimile, and a display device in which characters such as characters and symbols are stored as contour data.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention, and FIGS.
FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system of a data conversion device of a laser printer.
The figure is a schematic flowchart of a data conversion control routine,
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a routine for controlling bolding processing, FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a routine for controlling processing for synthesizing two outlines, and FIG. 6 is outline data of kanji “grass” stored in an outline font memory. FIG. 7 is a view visually showing contour data of a bolded kanji “grass”, and FIG. 8 is a view of a kanji “grass” obtained by combining two closed-loop contours into one. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing contour data visually, FIG. 9 is a diagram in which a kanji “grass” is superimposed on a pixel screen, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a print example of a bold-processed kanji “grass” in the prior art. . 14 Data conversion control device, 16 CPU, 18 ROM (program memory), 20 outline font memory, 30 pixel screen,

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G09G 5/24 B41J 2/485

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An outline is defined by assuming that outline data of one or more closed-loop outlines of a character is superimposed on a pixel screen having pixels of a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns. In a character contour line data conversion device provided with data conversion means for converting into a set of dot data corresponding to pixels completely or substantially included in a character configuration area, a line width of the character configuration area of the character is externally designated. By processing the contour data received from the outside in accordance with a predetermined rule, in order to change the line width to
Contour data changing means for moving at least one of the opposing contour segments of the contours defining the character configuration area with respect to the other and again as a closed loop contour, and changing from the contour data changing means The received contour data is received, and through this contour data, the contour including the moved contour segment and the contour intersecting with the contour are removed by removing the contour segment that has entered the character configuration area of the other party. One or more closed-loop contours that do not intersect, and the non-intersecting contours are left as they are, and the resulting contour data of the character comprising one or more closed-loop contours is referred to as the data. And a closed-loop synthesizing means for supplying to the converting means.